Turning Away From God After Salvation: How To Rediscover Faith

The Christian pilgrimage is not a simple one. Despite being saved for a life of “true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24), Christians face daily challenges that may lead them away from God, causing a relapse into sin and shame.

Meanwhile, Peter portrays a faithful disciple’s bountiful entry into paradise (2 Peter 1:11). According to Luke 24–33, discipleship is denying oneself, bearing his or her cross, and obeying Him.

This means that our words and actions will bear witness to our love as well as the depth to which our intention, objective, and purpose are the same as the ones of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

What Is Turning Away From God After Salvation?

Everyone who initially pursues the Lord is an entirely new slate. They are a blank page, patiently awaiting God to write and pour out the message of salvation on their minds, hearts, and souls.

Unfortunately, several of these individuals will slip into groups that seem determined to ignore the truth. Sometimes, due to their sinful nature, they turn away from God after salvation.

For a Christian, breaking away from the will of God may cause internal strife and deep emotional turmoil[1] since we are aware we are not staying true and carrying out God’s purpose and divine plan. As we choose to live in sin, our hearts become callous and less susceptible to the powerful conviction and direction of the Holy Spirit.

As wandering sheep, we turn away from our wonderful and righteous Shepherd, Jesus Christ, our Savior, who loves us unconditionally and offers Himself for our well-being. We block the Holy Spirit’s entrance to our conscience by crowding Him into a nook in our hearts. As we walk our separate ways, we hurt His heart, and the Holy Spirit mourns.

15 Signs You Are Turning Away From God After Salvation

We are turning away from God when we fail to take advantage of Christ’s selfless sacrifice and create a lasting relationship with Him as He desires. The devil will use this opportunity to bring us sorrow and misery. The warning signs listed below will inform us when we are starting to turn away from the Lord after salvation:

1. Diminishing Peace

In Paul’s letters, we will see his constant prayers for the safety and peace of the Church as a whole and as individuals. Through this, we learn that peace is truly important in one’s spiritual journey. It is also said that the absence of peace in someone is a message from the Holy Spirit that they are lacking something.

2. Ignoring The Word Of God

Disregarding God’s word could begin with missing the quiet moments we spend with Him, giving less heed to His voices inside us, and possibly breaking biblical commands. As we embark on our spiritual journey, Jesus taught us that we must always follow the Word of God.

3. Lesser And Shorter Prayer Time

Prayer is our fundamental way of communicating with God. Based on the Bible, one must pray constantly. God’s ultimate desire is to have an intimate connection with His people, and He makes this happen through the introduction of prayer as a form of interaction.

4. Returning To One’s Old Ways

Once we become followers of Jesus, we give up particular beliefs, friends, and behaviors. We progressively grow through Christ. When we notice ourselves gradually coming back to the things we left behind, we’re likely turning away from God.

5. Ignoring Small Sins

“Therefore, seeing we are also compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sins that easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,” Hebrews 12:1 proclaimed. The world around us is so infested with sin that we must constantly be on the lookout for those small deeds that are evil yet don’t seem to be on a surface level.

6. Being Vulnerable To Temptations And Tests

As we succumb to temptations and reassure ourselves of our failure, we are gradually submitting to our desire. The Holy Bible explicitly encourages believers not to lust after things but rather to love God entirely (Matthew 22:37).

If we’ve decided to embark on the narrow path with Him, we must be prepared for experiences and temptations that will shake our faith in Him.

7. Losing Brotherly Fellowship

Once we let events or things keep us from attending church, our connection with God weakens, and our faith in Him dwindles. Avoiding brotherly fellowship is a main indicator of drifting away from God after salvation.

8. Withdrawing The Duty Of Sharing God’s Message To Others

God called us to serve as “witnesses” to our faith. Withdrawing from this responsibility of witnessing is an indicator that we are turning away since we no longer care about the souls of everyone whom He truly cares about.

9. Serving For Personal Gain

To become the greatest of all, Jesus instructed us that we must first “be the servant and serve.” Indeed, serving God is important for believers and should never be done for selfish reasons. If someone serves for any reason other than God’s, they have already turned away from Him.

10. Doing Unfaithful Deeds

Unfaithfulness to the Lord is a minor indication that we are abandoning God’s grace after salvation. The Bible states, “Moreover, it is required in stewards that one be found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:2). This highlights faithfulness as a mentality that develops a connection with God.

11. Extreme Love For Other Things

Nothing, even the most seemingly beneficial things, such as a pursuit of God’s authority, anointing, and growth, should be great enough to take away God as a top priority in our lives. All of these are fine in and of themselves; however, when they become the focus of our pursuit, this becomes problematic.

12. Desire For Money

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him,” 1 John 2:15 stated. For instance, Judas valued money over Christ, who was the living God at that moment in time.

13. Presence Of Pride

The Bible declares, “God resists the proud and gives more grace to the humble…” (James 4:6). This is true because pride is an attribute of the devil. The devil’s fall from grace was due to his pride in wanting to overthrow the Lord.

14. Listening To The Devil’s Deception

The devil will go to any length to destroy our genuine connection with God. The adversary exaggerates our issues and feeds us lies that ruin our unwavering faith. Believing these deceptions is a sign of turning away from God after salvation.

15. Presence Of Doubt

Doubt is merely an absence of trust in the Lord that occurs inside the mind. Any Christian who doubts God has certainly lost faith. As Hebrews 11:6 explicitly mentions, “…for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”

What Are The Dangers Of Turning Away From God After Salvation?

The consequences of turning away from God after salvation are grievous because the devil takes advantage of such moments and hits us harder. At certain points, God tries to speak. But when we constantly shut him out, he stops. However, he never leaves. He waits for us to come back.

When we turn away from the Lord after salvation, we confront and suffer several dangers. Like what happened to Judas Iscariot, who is a known biblical character. In the Bible, he failed despite being one of Jesus’ disciples.

He loses the assurance of being saved. When such a person is saved, they have an intimate connection with Jesus Christ. That peace, however, is jeopardized if we walk away from Him.

Furthermore, one may find themselves becoming a slave to the world again. We stop believing and will return to our former habits and bad way of life when we turn away from Him. This can cause a variety of issues, both physical and spiritual.

Lastly, turning away from God may cause us to miss out on every single excellent thing He has planned for us. When we decide to follow Him, God loves to bless us in ways we cannot understand. Those good things, however, will be gone once we turn away from Him.

How To Come Back To God After Backsliding

The Scripture provides actual accounts of people who had relationships with God. Some strayed from God, like David, Moses, and Samson, but repented. Others persisted in walking away, committing the same sin.

In the Bible, David was a ruler who had sinned (adultery and murder), but when the prophet Nathan revealed his guilt to him, the King was willing to repent. Meanwhile, Samson is a different Bible figure who went astray but ultimately discovered his righteous path to God.

Recognizing what the Lord did on our behalf via Christ Jesus and accepting this blessing of grace in faith is the foundation of all happiness, love, and serenity. Following salvation and eternal security, the Christian’s mission is to conquer sin through an obedient, active faith that lives in the Spirit.

For God’s children, salvation answers the sinful nature and issue in terms of eternal fate. It also turns believers’ future from slavery to sin and dread of death and eternal hell to the actual possession of God’s eternal life and kingdom (1 John 5:11–12). Many Bible verses say that God starts salvation, but people need to participate through their Christian faith. This is emphasized in Ephesians 2:8–9.

Conclusion

Backsliding is far from ideal for any Christian. However, amidst the factors leading to turning away from God, there remains a glimmer of hope. Knowing and understanding our spiritual status is the very first step toward restoration.

In the narrative of the prodigal son, this is when he “came to himself,” realizing that he was in the filth of the pig hole eating animal food, which led him to return to his father’s house (Luke 15:11–32). The story taught us that the simplest solution to sin is to repent and return sincerely to our loving God.